RIAA Continues to Be Attacked from DDoS Flood

Security firm PandaLabs recently spoke with hacker group Anonymous about its global cyber-war with the pro-copyright industry. Called "Operation Payback," the DDoS assault was triggered by a similar attack on file sharing sites by an Indian firm. Now Anonymous is in offensive mode and looking to sign on more members by sending out flyers and recruiting people through Facebook, Digg, Reddit and other sites.

Their mission? To fight back against the anti-piracy lobby. "There been a massive lobbyist-provoked surge in unfair infringements of personal freedom online, lately," one member said. "In the USA, a new bill has been proposed that could allow the USA to force top level registrars such as ICANN and Nominet to shut down websites, all with NO fair trial. Guilty until proven guilty! Our tactics are inspired by the very people who provoked us, AiPlex Software. A few weeks back they admitted to attacking file sharing sites with DDoS attacks."

According to the group, they have successfully conducted DDoS attacks on the Motion Picture Association of America [MPAA], The Recording Industry Association of America [RIAA], The British Phonographic Industry [BPI], The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft [AFACT] , Stichting Bescherming Rechten Entertainment Industrie Nederland [BREIN], ACS:Law, Aiplex, Websheriff, and Dglegal.

So when will the attacks end? According to Anonymous, it won’t be anytime soon. "There is no time frame," an unnamed member said. "We will keep going until we stop being angry."

PandaLabs said that Aiplex was the most heavily affected by Anonymous' attacks with 313 service interruptions and 123 hours of downtime. ACS:Law, the second most affected, experienced the largest bulk of downtime at 179 hours, with 152 separate service interruptions. The RIAA has been down for 127 hours and the MPAA for 23 hours.